Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to datacenters, and more particularly to managing physical network cross-connects in a datacenter.
Background of the Invention
A datacenter is a physical facility that houses computer systems (typically servers) and associated components including data storage and telecommunications equipment. Customers of a datacenter would have their computer systems, such as those which host a company's web site, located in the datacenter, which would provide electrical power and connections to telecommunications resources used by the customer's computers, and may also provide connections to other computer systems within the datacenter. The computer systems hosted in datacenters are often housed in vertically arranged banks supported by a rack; the term “rack” is therefore used to refer to a single vertical bank of computers and related components in a datacenter.
A myriad of physical connections between various systems are required; these physical connections are referred to as physical network cross-connects, or more colloquially as just “cross-connects”. Cross-connects are dedicated physical network connections (typically by way of copper or fiber cabling) between two network endpoint ports located in a datacenter, and may traverse a plurality of network intermediate ports between the network end point ports and may comprise multiple individual cables. As used herein, the term “port” means a physical port on a computer system or part thereof, such as a server, a router, a patch panel, or on a connector, to which a cable may be connected to enable wired transmission of data. The transmitted data may be electrical or optical data. Broadly speaking, there are two main types of cable media which may be used to implement cross-connects: fiber connection, such as single mode fiber (SMF) or dual mode fiber (DMF or “duplex mode”), and copper connection (CAT), such as CAT3, CAT5 or CAT6. While shorter “patch” cabling (typically three feet or less) may hang freely, longer lengths of cables or bundled cabling are often supported in open-topped U-shaped conduits following predefined paths in the datacenter. A “connector” aggregates a plurality of cables, each having its own dedicated port on the connector, into structured cabling (an “interconnector” or IC) which may be further bundled into backbone or “trunk” cabling (which may extend vertically between floors of a datacenter). Trunk cabling is in turn coupled to a “cabinet”. A “cabinet” is a specialized mass interconnect system that is co-located with the telecommunications equipment that enables connection to external networks such as the Internet; typically this equipment, along with one or more cabinets, is located in an Intermediate Connection Room (ICR), also called a “Meet-Me Room” or “InterConnect Room”.
Within a single datacenter site, there are two main types of “end-to-end” cross-connect: a cross-connect between a first port on a server or associated equipment (i.e. a rack) and a second port on the equipment (i.e. a rack) of a telecommunication service provider, and a cross-connect between a first port on a first server or associated equipment (i.e. a first rack) and a second port on a second server or associated equipment (i.e. a second rack). In the first type of cross-connect, one network endpoint port may be on a customer's server and the other network endpoint port may be on equipment located in the datacenter and operated by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) so as to enable the customer's server to connect to the Internet. In the second type of cross-connect, one network endpoint port may be on a first server and the other network endpoint port may be on a second server located elsewhere in the datacenter. The two servers may belong to the same legal person so that servers belonging to a single entity can cooperate even though physically separated, or to different legal persons. For example, in the latter case, a server hosting a web site may connect to an Amazon Web Services (AWS) server located elsewhere in the datacenter.
The above “end-to-end” cross-connects between network endpoint ports may consist of or comprise one or more of the following individual cabled connections:                Rack (port) to connector;        Rack (port) to cabinet;        Rack (port) to ISP rack (port);        Connector to connector;        Connector to cabinet;        Cabinetx to cabinetx (i.e. within the same cabinet); and        Cabinetx to cabinety:                    between two cabinets in the same ICR; and/or            between two cabinets in different ICRs.                        
Cross-connects may in some circumstances include other types of connection as well.
A datacenter may encompass hundreds or thousands of computer systems across multiple floors, and there may be thousands of cross-connects, each of which may comprise one or more individual connections. Provisioning and management of these connections can be exceptionally challenging.
The system and method disclosed herein provides an improved approach for provisioning and managing connections in a datacenter.